These
three yachts offer high-quality charters in the emerging New Zealand marketplace:

FLINDERS
About three years ago, Graham and Robin Bowkett retired from the waste
management business and decided they wanted to see the world. The New
Zealanders bought the 163-foot Flinders (right), a former hydrographic
ship that spent about 30 years doing underwater surveys for the Australian
navy.

By the time you read
this, Flinders’ makeover into a luxury yacht should be complete.
“It really is a new boat,” Graham says. “There’s nothing
left of the old boat. It happens to be on a hull that was existing.”

The new Flinders
will accommodate 12 guests and ten crew. What little of her interior had
been installed during my visit included a lovely shade of rasowa (a type
of Fijian wood), and the Bowketts were incorporating smart features for
charter. In addition to a darkroom for photographers, an owner’s
office, and a third-deck swimming pool, Flinders will have a top
deck entirely devoted to guest use and a helicopter pad for emergencies.

She’s expected
to begin her charter career in New Zealand in August, bound for the Caribbean
this winter and the Mediterranean next summer. Flinders is scheduled
to spend much of 2005 in the Maldives, East Asia, and Indonesia, arriving
back in New Zealand in September 2006.

Her rate was being
determined at presstime.

LIBERTY IVBarry Colman is
a newsman, and he sees New Zealand’s charter market as a big story
about to break. “Until the America’s Cup, we never attracted
the big spenders down here,” says the publisher of National Business
Review. “It’s about to open up.”

Colman and his wife,
Cushia Martini, are among the leaders in establishing the market with
their 100-foot Falcon, Liberty IV. The 2001 build—which has
a high-gloss cherry interior—was in the Mediterranean until the couple
bought her and took her to New Zealand this year. During my sneak peek
in the Bay of Islands, during which I sampled a buffet lunch prepared
by chef Petra Gerates, Liberty IV was building a permanent crew
and hoping to set an all-inclusive rate for eight to ten guests. “It’s
too messy the other way,” Colman says of base rates and extras. “People
get off the boat and they get another bill.”

The yacht should be
especially attractive to couples with children, as the master and VIP
staterooms are almost identical, with two twin cabins positional in between.

Also make a note to
try the Vavasour sauvignon blanc onboard. It’s Colman’s own
label, from his winery in New Zealand’s Marlborough region.

Rates were still
being determined at presstime.

PACIFIC MERMAIDThis 105-footer
was launched in 1997 as Hull No. 23 from Winter Marine, a New Zealand
yard that also happened to introduce the 85-foot power catamaran Pacific
Harmony at this year’s Yacht and Brokerage Show in Miami. “We
made a mistake and fell in love with this one,” Capt. Allan Winter
says of the motoryacht. “So we kept her.”

Family-operated by Winter
and his father, Capt. Ken Winter, Pacific Mermaid calls Auckland
home and offers charters in the Hauraki Gulf. Her proximity to the international
airport and her spacious guest areas make her ideal for corporate day
charters or even weddings followed by a cruise for the newlyweds. During
my afternoon aboard, she accommodated a party of several dozen people
with ease.

Her base rate for
eight guests with five crew is $10,600 New Zealand dollars (about $7,000
U.S.) for the first day, followed by $9,800 New Zealand dollars (about
$6,480 U.S.) every day thereafter. —K.K.